You know when you go to a concert for an artist whose previous albums you love, but whose newest release you haven’t had a chance to digest yet? Inevitably they mostly play songs from that new album and just a few crumbs of the old stuff. The opposite happened at Wednesday night’s Beck show — the first of his three-night engagement at the United Palace Theater up in Washington Heights. Sure, I own and love all of his albums (well, I’m not a big Sea Change fan, but the songs work when I shuffle them with less suicide-inducing tracks). But I’m thoroughly hooked on Modern Guilt — the gorgeous Beach Boys-esque harmonies at the beginning of “Chemtrails” and the peppy surf beat of “Gamma Ray” make me a very happy girl. So when everyone’s favorite strawberry-blond Scientologist shoved all of his new songs to the back of the line, I was kinda bummed.

Then again, I shouldn’t complain. Who doesn’t love a little “Loser” and “Devil’s Haircut”? It seemed like the set list was designed to please everyone: the old-school fans, the people who just know the radio hits, the Sea Change depressives. (It also seems to be the same set list as his Hollywood Bowl show two weeks ago, though we didn’t get the cool orchestral accompaniment.) And I think Beck wanted to please himself, too, and kept those old hits fresh for himself by rearranging them. I particularly dug “Nicotine and Gravy” turned into a rock song with interludes of great thrashing guitars.

After seeing his dinner-party interlude during the Guero tour, and his marionette show at Bonnaroo in 2006, I was looking forward to a similar gimmicky diversion. The backdrop of pretty LED patterns probably would have sufficed if I’d been one of the members of the audience whose, er, concert-enhancing substance consumption inspired theater management to keep the house lights on for a good portion of the show. The wackiest Beck and company got was when they gathered at the front of the stage with little samplers and large headphones to play “Hell Yes” and “Black Tambourine.”

At last, 45 minutes into the show, he played “Modern Guilt,” “Walls” and “Chemtrails” — all performed rather faithfully to the album versions. And in the encore, there was a booty-shaking rendition of “Gamma Ray” that was worth the wait. Here’s hoping that in another couple of years I’ll be complaining that he always reverts to his 2008 classics.

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